The Beijing Party Secretary and the Crowd: Incident at Mount Paektu

On July 15, Liu Qi [刘奇], the CCP Party Secretary of Beijing, made an imperial progress to Mount Paektu/Changbaishan, resulting in the closing of the mountain to thousands of Chinese and South Korean tourists. The story is told in Chinese Weibo-style (handful of pics and some salty captions) here. In a nutshell, Liu Qi’s motorcade was blocked by angry tourists who had spent no small sums of time and money to get to this particularly beautiful volcanic edge of Jilin province. Eventually the derided Secretary was allowed passage with his entourage and the jilted tourists were allowed to climb the mountain free of charge.

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Sino-NK is a scholarly collective of young Sinologists and Koreanists dedicated to documenting and analyzing the borderland dynamics, transnational ties, and history of Northeast Asia. Sino-NK has been quoted in such outlets as The Economist, Washington Post, Politico, and Wall Street Journal, and is utilized frequently by scholars and journalists. Sino-NK endeavors to better understand North Korea’s relations with the world and to chart a path forward for digital (and) academic analysis.